Compared to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit trilogy is a slight letdown primarily because it has not been sustainable from a storytelling point of view. Jackson has lived upto the challenge of using superior special effects as a creative tool.

There’s awe and spectacle and some nice light-hearted moments too, but it still pales in comparison to Jackson’s original LOTR trilogy. For Tolkien nuts though, understandably it marks the end of an era.

It maintains the light and often humorous spirit of the prequel franchise and still manages to remind us we are coming close to the actual LOTR with its lessons in the sins of greed and avarice.

Visually, the film is stunning with visual effects and computer generated images, but again it shares the same palette of all its previous editions. The only exception here being, set in winter; the action on frozen ice adds drama and freshness to the otherwise staid output.

Whatever you do, don’t miss this film. And before you do, fish out the DVDs of the first two Hobbit films and watch them back-to-back. It’s a treat for the senses.

With this Peter Jackson’s 6 film middle earth series reaches the finale…there couldn’t have been an end better than this!

The film is designed in such a way that even a non-Tolkien or LOTR fan would easily enjoy it. And there are enough nuances for true fans to make it seem like an early Christmas present. Go watch it for the visual treat even if you don’t follow high fantasy… you might come back as a convert to the genre…

…the most unspectacular in the series and it makes you thank your stars that it is the last one.

It isn’t quite the finale that you imagined and deserved, but it is still worth the price of an admission ticket, if only to say your final goodbyes to Middle Earth and its citizens …

…is more engaging than I expected it to be. The fight sequences and Jackson’s mastery over the cinematography department has meant that we’ve gotten to see a fair bit of New Zealand but obviously in a made up way. It is a good finale film of a trilogy, but there a lot better ones.

‘The Battle of the Five Armies’ is the most interesting movie of this trilogy, in that it is the least disappointing movie of this trilogy. So if you walk into the theater expecting something as mediocre as the previous movies, you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised. The 3D is still terrible though.

In story terms, nothing much happens in The Battle of the Five Armies.

Almost one hour of the feature’s 144-minute duration is dedicated to lavish combat and a crucial turnabout in allegiance — a rather awkward stage in the narrative — handled with great tact by its quick-witted director.